BERLIN (JTA) — One of Berlin’s daily newspapers apologized for printing a caricature deemed anti-Semitic on its front page last week.
In an open letter to readers published Thursday, the editors of the Berliner Zeitung apologized for the “regrettable error” in which they published a cartoon by Joe Lecorbeau on Jan. 8, one day after the murderous terror attack on the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo, the satirical French magazine.
According to the Deutsche Welle news service, the illustration — a fake Charlie Hebdo cover — shows an Orthodox Jew with an enlarged nose, under the banner “Shoah Hebdo.” He is saying, “1 million rebate out of six, for Palestine.” The Israeli Embassy in Berlin contacted the paper to complain about the cartoon.
“We are all deeply sorry for any offence caused. Unfortunately, it resulted from a mistake that was made on the day of the terror attacks in Paris,” the statement read.
The cartoon in question was printed with others from Charlie Hebdo, to illustrate how the magazine criticized different religions.
But the editors, who had wanted to show their respect to the murdered journalists and cartoonists, “failed to recognize that one of the cartoons was a fake,” something they would have noticed had they translated the caption, they noted. A correction was posted the following day and the cartoon was removed from the paper’s website.
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